A small piece of foreign object debris (FOD) was seen in footage from the Mars helicopter’s navigation camera (Navcam) for a portion of its 33rd flight. This FOD was not visible in Navcam footage from the previous flight (32). The FOD is seen in Flight 33 Navcam imagery from the earliest frames to approximately halfway through the video, when it fell from the leg and drifted back to the Mars surface. All telemetry from the flight and a post-flight search and transfer are nominal and show no indication of vehicle damage. The Ingenuity and Perseverance Mars 2020 teams are working to discern the source of the debris.
Mars Helicopter
About This Blog
These blog updates were provided by the Mars Helicopter team. The Mars Helicopter was a technology demonstration to test the first powered flight on Mars.
Dates of planned test activities sometimes changed due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays, helicopter and/or rover status.
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Contributors+
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Ingenuity Operations Engineer, NASA/JPL -
Chief Engineer for the Mars Helicopter Project, NASA/JPL -
Media Representative, NASA/JPL -
Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Chief Pilot, NASA/JPL -
Ingenuity Chief Engineer, NASA/JPL -
Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Mechanical Engineering Lead, NASA/JPL -
Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Operations Lead, NASA/JPL -
Ingenuity Pilot, NASA/JPL -
Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Project Manager, NASA/JPL -
Ingenuity Team Lead, NASA/JPL -
Chief Engineer Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, NASA/JPL